Judicium Veritatis – edition by Hugo Fraslin

About the edition: The Judicium Veritatis is an allegorical fiction whose aim is to foster Clement VII’s supremacy on the pontifical throne. It is a Latin treatise which can roughly be divided into two parts: a literary one/a jurisdictional one. While the first tells the tribulations of several allegories (rumor, ratio, oratio, virtutes et vitia) looking for veritas’ residence in the heavens to get her back to earth, the second is a theatrical mise en scène in which veritas, as head of the tribunal, listens to the procuratores of each pope before finally proclaiming the truth and the true obedience. Full of poetical figures and jurisdictional allegationes, the two parts provide a very colourful background of the schism.

Aim of the digital edition: Given the different traditions of the manuscripts and the long span of time between each of them (almost three centuries), I wanted to underpin the numerous variants between the manuscripts (pure variants, additions and omissions) so as to pinpoint the potential relationships between each version of the text.